Hello everybody,
I really appreciate if you read my long post, help me what to do, or share your experiences.
I am writing to ask a question regarding my express entry profile. I am in Canada and have applied for express entry (Federal Skilled Worker, CEC category). I have been invited to apply and my question is about my marital status.
I married back home, but we have been living separately since I first came to Canada in 2017. We decided to get divorced, and currently, we do not have any contacts. As there is not such a term as “Legally separated” in my home country, I selected “divorced” in my express entry profile. I have need to upload the documents of my divorce which I do not have.
Below are some relevant information about my application and marital status.
• My marital status does not affect my eligibility and the points I received for express entry.
• I cannot get an official letter from the court regarding our divorce file. That is because right now there is not such a file exactly for divorce. My husband and I decided to get divorced in a cooperative way (based on laws back home), but then he refused to do so and did not reply to me at all. Unfortunately, a married woman under law of Iran can’t get divorced without her husband’s cooperation unless there’s evidence of abuse or adultery. Therefore, I cannot do much in this regard.
• I entered the date when we decided to act on our divorce as the date of my divorce. At that date, we ended our relationship, told our families and separated our belongings. However, I do not have any document to support the date this oral agreement has happened.
Followings are the documents that I can think of to provide in order to support my case.
- I have a document that shows that I assigned my father as my legal representative to do the process of divorce on behalf of me at the time my husband was cooperating.
- I have a notice from the court because of the petition my husband filed recently regarding the wife’s sexual submission (called “Tamkin”). If the court approves that, the husband can get divorced without giving the woman her legal financial rights. This is like a first step for a man back home for an easier divorce when his wife is not living with him.
- Also, I can write an affidavit showing that I will never be sponsoring my husband.
I will appreciate it very much if you help me with these questions that I have:
- Should I have selected “Legally separated” even if back home, we do not have such a term and I cannot provide documents that prove I am legally separated? if I should have, then, is it better to explain my situation to the officer in the current application, or it’s better to withdraw my application and apply again?
- Are there any other types of documents that I can append to my application to boost the chance of its acceptance?
Thank you very much for taking the time and go through my long post. I really appreciate it.